[K12OSN] Limiting memory use

[Tim Born]

Todd O'Bryan wrote:

>I'm using Ubuntu 6.10.
>
>I teach programming and students will frequently create an infinitely
>recursive function that eats up more and more memory. If they don't
>realize what they've done and stop the program, eventually we run out of
>RAM, start hitting the virtual memory, and the whole lab comes to a
>grinding halt as the system thrashes itself to oblivion.
>
>Is there any way to limit the memory that a process can suck up so that
>this doesn't happen?
>
>Thanks,
>Todd
>
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>  
>
Take a look at ulimit

> [timborn at elliott ~]$ ulimit -a
> core file size          (blocks, -c) 0
> data seg size           (kbytes, -d) unlimited
> file size               (blocks, -f) unlimited
> pending signals                 (-i) 24574
> max locked memory       (kbytes, -l) 32
> max memory size         (kbytes, -m) unlimited
> open files                      (-n) 1024
> pipe size            (512 bytes, -p) 8
> POSIX message queues     (bytes, -q) 819200
> stack size              (kbytes, -s) 10240
> cpu time               (seconds, -t) unlimited
> max user processes              (-u) 24574
> virtual memory          (kbytes, -v) unlimited
> file locks                      (-x) unlimited

You should be able to set system wide limits by adding a file in 
/etc/profile.d/ulimit.sh:

cat /etc/profile.d/ulimit.sh
ulimit -m 1024